This paper will show how ASoIaF accentuates major themes through negative construction and the programmatic frustration of certain narrative trajectories. More specifically, I will show how the weakness of the Night's Watch in the story is heightened by the conspicuous failure of many characters who ought to go to the Wall to do so. The absence of this "phantom" auxiliary to the Watch serves to emphasize the tragedy of the Watch's inability to stop the impending disaster of the Long Winter.

This article focuses on ‘bridges’ in A Game of Thrones. Focusing on three scenes from “A Storm of Swords,” each scene and included secondary characters will be examined to discuss how Martin uses physical structures and structured characters to structure the plot in his novels.

The eponymous hero of the 13th-century Roman de Silence and Brienne of Tarth are both armed women who at times choose to be silent and at times are silenced by other characters or by their narratives. Le Roman de Silence and A Song of Ice and Fire both suggest that women who bear arms will have difficulty speaking, but ultimately their words bring about important resolutions or create powerful moments of tension in their narratives.